The spiralling cost of ID cards

"Spending on consultants by the Home Office has rocketed by 2,000 per cent under Labour to almost £150m a year," reveals the Daily Mail.

"One of the major reasons for the expenditure is trying to get the controversial ID cards project off the ground.

"The cash could otherwise have been spent putting 10,900 extra police on streets for a year."

In the period 1997/98 to 2006/07 spending by the Identity and Passport Service - the arm of the Home Office in charge of the ID cards project - rocketed from £237,000 to £30m.